It is difficult to imagine a more zany reaction to a Lady Gaga gag than an official diplomatic protest to the government of her country.
It is surely not the intention of the Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) to make Thailand a laughing stock. There is no reason to think that the IP agency wanted to advertise the availability of counterfeit Rolex watches in the country. Yet these are the only two possible achievements of the planned complaint to the US ambassador over a Twitter post by the singer.
Pachima Thanasanti, director-general of the department, spoke to the media about the tweet and her protest. Ms Pachima made the points that Lady Gaga is an international celebrity who greatly depends on IP law to make her living. The singer, she said, should have shown a little more thought before she tweeted that she wanted to buy a fake Rolex in Bangkok.
That is Ms Pachima's personal opinion. There is no doubt that millions of Thais and foreigners agree. But what was missing from her extended remarks to the news media was any explanation of why her department submitted a letter of protest to the US embassy, and just what they expect US diplomats to do about her letter and about what seems like an attempted joke, certainly lame, by Lady Gaga.
It seems that the department chief has only succeeded in restarting a rather small incident which had already died in the 24-hour news cycle. She called the singer's tweet "offensive, insulting and creating a bad image for the country". If Lady Gaga's tweet was so offensive, why does the DIP feel it is necessary to repeat it? Ms Pachima unfortunately has only illustrated that the "bad image" of the counterfeit watches existed long before the strange singer tweeted.
For example, a search on Google for "fake Rolex Thailand" excluding the Lady Gaga mentions, finds 598,000 references. A popular English-language tourist guide on sale worldwide, including in Bangkok, claims that, "In Thailand (a) fake Rolex can be found easier than the closest Starbucks." Virtually every internet forum on travel to Thailand has numerous threads on this suddenly touchy subject _ because tourists want to know the details. YouTube has helpful videos explaining where and how to spot, buy and bargain for a fake Rolex in Bangkok.
The US embassy will likely reject the protest with a polite explanation that US citizens have the right to freedom of speech. But the embassy could reply the way the White House of President Barack Obama spoke of piracy problems two months ago, claiming "Thailand is a 'notorious market'." The United States has listed four popular shopping areas as centres of piracy and counterfeiting. Last year, the US government stationed a special team in Thailand to press Ms Pachima and her department "to improve protection and enforcement" of piracy violations.
By replaying the entire Lady Gaga gaffe in public, the DIP is only drawing more attention to a silly, easily forgettable incident. Re-tweeting the flamboyant entertainer gives her far more status than either she or her 127-character message deserve. In such a case, the correct government response is silence. The DIP probably didn't set out to further publicise the availability of fake Rolex watches in Bangkok, but that is what it has accomplished.